


Reflection

by anime_babble



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-24
Updated: 2012-05-24
Packaged: 2017-11-05 22:21:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/411627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anime_babble/pseuds/anime_babble
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Both similar and opposite.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reflection

_If we had met then, do you think we could have been friends?  
\- Aang to Zuko in "The Blue Spirit"_

I)  
You are only a toddler when they take you from your mother. It is for the best, the monks murmur to your weeping parents. This child will be strong, will be the great one. We will teach him how to fly.

That night, you scream and scream and scream, into the cold mountain air, trying with all your might to reach the ears of the mother you lost. But time will roll on by, and you will forget her.

II)  
You are a boy when your mother disappears. Your last memory of her is vague, and wreathed in shadows. You remember her whispering words of love and faith in the dark. By the harsh light of day, you don’t know if that memory is true, or something you made up to hold onto in difficult times. You do not dare cry, and her name becomes forbidden.

But you remember.

I)  
The only father you will ever know is Master Gyatso. Once the monks tell you exactly what your destiny will be, and how you must spend each and every hour of your day training, Gyatso will be the only person who remembers you are still a boy. He will make you laugh, and let you be young. Let you play games. Play them with you.

And he will love you.

II)  
You will have two fathers. In every sense but the biological one, Iroh will be your father. He will try to teach you how to laugh again. He will be patient when you falter, and never tire of watching you train.

Your real father is Ozai, who can hardly bear to look at you. Your destiny is to inherit a throne, and you will willingly spend every hour of every day in training, trying to prove that hard work can make up for the lack of natural talent. Ozai will shake his head when he sees how little you have progressed, never seeing the dedication behind it.

But you will love him.

I)  
We are sending you away, the monks will tell you. You are too close to Gyatso, still too much a boy. You must grow up. There is a destiny waiting for you.

You run away.

II)  
You are exiled henceforth, your own father will say. And with that, there is no throne ahead of you, no future, nothing. All that you have left is a small shred of hope, that somehow you can capture the Avatar.

So you square your shoulders, and you face the challenge.

I)  
With your new family, you will travel to many towns. Avatar, Avatar, they will chant, and there will be banquets in your honor. You are their symbol of hope, their glimmer of peace. Often, you will save them. And they will beg you to stay a while longer when it is time to go.

II)  
Alone, you will travel to many towns. You will hide who you are, because you are a symbol of war, and an object of hatred. You will resort to thievery or hard labor for your dinner, something once unthinkable to a Prince of the Fire Nation. 

Once, you will save a boy. And then they will run you out of town.

II)  
You will meet the Avatar many times. You will even work with him, for a common goal. As time goes by, you are unsure what exactly you reach for now. Once, the Avatar was a ticket home, your bitter enemy, and your last chance to prove yourself. The Avatar was the only hope you were allowed to have.

Mostly now, you just feel confused.

I)  
You and Zuko clash many times, and he is your enemy. But you will also think of him as the Blue Spirit, and how you saved each other’s lives. And then you will fight with him against his sister, which, in your mind, makes him half a comrade.

When you defeat the Fire Lord, for this you know you must do, you wonder what will happen to the Fire Nation, and the people who were led into this war by a leader who only loved power. And you will wonder if the cycle of fighting will ever end.

But you look at Zuko, and you will see hope.

[End.]

**Author's Note:**

> Written prior to the completion of the series, so Aang's parentage isn't exactly compliant with what we know of Airbender family structure anyway. But I'm too lazy to change it so...^__^


End file.
